About 600 yrs ago, a Dutch painter, meditating on the timeless truth of God’s vulnerability, born in a manger, painted Nativity by Night.

About 400 yrs ago, an Anglican priest, meditating on the timeless majesty of God and the Trinity, wrote the hymn, Holy, Holy, Holy.

About 20 years ago, an American rock star, Sufjan Stevens, created this arrangement of Holy, Holy, Holy.

About 15 yrs ago, a Dutch art historian created this video, juxtaposing the majesty of God in the hymn with the vulnerability of Jesus in the painting.

About 20 yrs ago, Manhattan pastor Tim Keller wrote this quote that explains why all this has been so meaningful to me.

In the gift of Christmas, the unassailable, omnipotent God became a baby, giving us the ultimate example of letting our defenses down to fight for relationship. Intimacy.

There is no way to have a close relationship without becoming vulnerable to hurt. And Christmas tells us that God became breakable and fragile.

God became someone we could hurt. Why? To get us back.

If you believe this and take it into your life, you’re blessed. As you take in the truth of what he did for you—how loved and affirmed you are—you’ll be able to let down your defenses in your relationship w other people. You won’t always need to guard your honor. You’ll be able to let the barriers down. You’ll be able to move into intimate relationship with other people.

What is in the gift of Christmas?

His vulnerability for intimacy with us which gives us the vulnerability to be intimate with the people around us.

As you listen to the video, consider our holy, DNA and nebula creating God making himself so small and fragile. Opening the way for the close, trusting relationships we long for with him and others.

Sufjan Stevens mixes autobiography, religious themes, and regional history to create folk songs of grand proportions. A preoccupation with epic concepts has motivated two state records (Michigan & Illinois), a five-disc Christmas box set (Songs for Christmas), and more. He attended Hope College, in Holland, Michigan, and the masters program for writers at the New School for Social Research. Sufjan currently lives in Brooklyn, NY. http://asthmatickitty.com/sufjan-stevens

Marleen Hengelaar Rookmaaker served as the editor of ArtWay, a web-based resource for art commentary from a Christian worldview, with resources for Church use. She edited the Complete Works of her father, Dr. Hans Rookmaaker, professor of Art History at Free Univeristy in Amsterdam. A friend and colleague of Dr. Francis Schaeffer, Dr. Rookmaaker established the Dutch L’Abri study center.

From Marleen’s ArtWay commentary on this video, note how Geertgen painted Jesus in a smaller scale than Mary and the animals to emphasize his vulnerability. Marleen also wrote, ” It struck me that by letting this song be about the Christ Child, as Sufjan Stevens did, this child is honoured as part of the Trinity: the small becomes inconceivably big. Only later it hit me that Mary and three of the angels form a triangle with their hands, i.e. the reference to Jesus as member of the Trinity is also an important element in the painting!”

Tim Keller’s quote is excerpted from his contribution to the Advent devotional reader Come Thou Long Expected Jesus. I highly recommend this devotional reader and hope you’ll read Keller’s entire piece.